SAN FRANCISCO / Accountant/lawyer jailed for tax fraud

A South San Francisco man who is a certified public accountant and an attorney has been sentenced to two years in prison for income-tax evasion.

Wade Vincent Shang, 48, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge William Alsup after a jury found Shang guilty of three counts of tax evasion following an eight-day trial in San Francisco.

Shang was charged with signing false income-tax returns by "substantially" understating the amount of tax that was due on his tax returns from 1995 to 1999.

Alsup concluded that Shang "abused his position of public trust" as an attorney and CPA.

"Attorneys and CPAs hold positions of trust, and following the law is certainly something taxpayers and the IRS expect of them," said Victor Song, special agent in charge with the Internal Revenue Service criminal investigation division. "That includes the tax laws that are, of course, meant to apply to all of us."